TED Talks
My journey mapping the uncharted world | Tawanda Kanhema
Significant pieces of the globe are literally not on the map: they're missing from the most widely used mapping platforms, like Google Street View, leaving communities neglected of vital services and humanitarian aid. In this...
SciShow
Should You Talk to Your Plants to Help Them Grow?
You may have heard that plants do better with verbal encouragement, but is there any evidence supporting this gardening tale?
TED Talks
TED: How the military fights climate change | David Titley
Military leaders have known for millennia that the time to prepare for a challenge is before it hits you, says scientist and retired US Navy officer David Titley. He takes us from the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria to the icy shores...
TED Talks
Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx
A whirlwind of energy and ideas, Stephen Ritz is a teacher in New York's tough South Bronx, where he and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery -- and jobs. Just try to keep up with this New York treasure as he spins through the...
TED Talks
Courtney E. Martin: This isn't her mother's feminism
Blogger Courtney E. Martin examines the perennially loaded word "feminism" in this personal and heartfelt talk. She talks through the three essential paradoxes of her generation's quest to define the term for themselves.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Flannery O’Connor? - Iseult Gillespie
Find out why Flannery O’Connor, an American novelist, is known as a master of the grotesque in Southern Gothic literature. -- Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts, intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best: the...
Curated Video
Congressional Elections: Crash Course Government and Politics
This week Craig Benzine talks about the importance of elections. But he isn’t going to focus on presidential elections, but instead those of the strongest part of our government: congressional elections. Craig will talk about the...
TED Talks
Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes
Diana Laufenberg shares three surprising things she has learned about teaching -- including a key insight about learning from mistakes.
SciShow
Can Houseplants Improve Air Quality?
We all have that coworker who insists that the houseplants on their desks are improving the office air quality, but is there any truth to that?
SciShow
Acid, Poop, and Barf: Vultures' Secret Weapons
Vultures, you eat old, putrid dead things for a living. How is that not killing you? Hank explains the secret weapons vultures use to fight off disease, avoid predators, and beat the heat. Prepare for a Sci-Show Gross-Out!
TED Talks
Moshe Safdie: How to reinvent the apartment building
In 1967, Moshe Safdie reimagined the monolithic apartment building, creating “Habitat ’67,” which gave each unit an unprecedented sense of openness. Nearly 50 years later, he believes the need for this type of building is greater than...
TED Talks
Edward Tenner: The paradox of efficiency
Is our obsession with efficiency actually making us less efficient? In this revelatory talk, writer and historian Edward Tenner discusses the promises and dangers of our drive to get things done as quickly as possible -- and suggests...
TED Talks
France Villarta: The gender-fluid history of the Philippines
In much of the world, gender is viewed as binary: man or woman, each assigned characteristics and traits designated by biological sex. But that's not the case everywhere, says France Villarta. In a talk that's part cultural love letter,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve "Einstein's Riddle"? - Dan Van der Vieren
Before he turned physics upside down, a young Albert Einstein supposedly showed off his genius by devising a complex riddle involving a stolen exotic fish and a long list of suspects. Can you resist tackling a brain teaser written by one...
TED Talks
Geena Rocero: Why I must come out
When fashion model Geena Rocero first saw a photo of herself in a bikini, "I thought ... you have arrived!" As she reveals, that's because she was born with the gender assignment "boy." In this moving talk, Rocero tells the story of...
TED-Ed
Why should you read Toni Morrison's "Beloved"? | Yen Pham
Two tiny handprints stamped into a cake. A mirror that shatters without warning. A trail of cracker crumbs strewn along the floor. Everyone at 124 Bluestone Road knows their home is haunted— but there's no mystery about the spirit...
Crash Course
Sula: Crash Course Literature
This week, John is talking about Toni Morrison's novel of friendship, betrayal, and loss, Sula. Sula tells the story of two African American girls, the town where they grew up, the tragic even that was central to their youth, and the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How does impeachment work? - Alex Gendler
For most jobs, it's understood that you can be fired _ whether for crime, incompetence, or just poor performance. But what if your job happens to be the most powerful position in the country _ or the world? That's where impeachment comes...
TED Talks
TED: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter | Mark Bezos
Volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos tells a story of an act of heroism that didn't go quite as expected -- but that taught him a big lesson: Don't wait to be a hero.
TED Talks
Hendrik Poinar: Bring back the woolly mammoth!
It’s the dream of kids all around the world to see giant beasts walk the Earth again. Could -- and should -- that dream be realized? Hendrik Poinar talks about the next big thing: the quest to engineer a creature that looks very much...
TED Talks
Sam Martin: Claim your "manspace"
Author Sam Martin shares photos of a quirky world hobby that's trending with the XY set: "manspaces." (They're custom-built hangouts where a man can claim a bit of his own territory to work, relax, be himself.) Grab a cold one and enjoy.
SciShow
How Close Are We to the Perfect Smart Home?
Want to do more than talk to your refrigerator and control your lights with your phone? Hank explains how close we are to the smart home that can do everything for us.
SciShow
Anxiety Hurts
Everybody knows what anxiety feels like - it's annoying and counterproductive and apparently useless, so why does it exist? It turns out your anxiety isn't useless at all - it's a result of the sympathetic nervous system (in charge of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read Virginia Woolf? - Iseult Gillespie
How best can we understand the internal experience of alienation? In both her essays and her fiction, Virginia Woolf shapes the slippery nature of subjective experience into words, while her characters frequently lead inner lives that...